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The Mount Douglas Rams got off to a quick start and kicked it further into high gear in the opening week of the Subway Bowl triple-A high school football playoffs on Saturday, declawing the Mount Boucherie Bears 45-13 in Kelowna courtesy of a big second half.
It gets tougher next week for the Rams, who will now have to go to undefeated and No. 1-ranked New Westminster Hyacks, who earned a bye in Round 1, having finished first in the Western Conference.
Both the Rams and Bears finished the regular-season at 4-3, but Mount Boucherie came in as the No. 4 team in the East against the No. 5 Rams in the West.
After the Rams scored the first three touchdowns of the game to go ahead 19-0, the Bears battled back with two majors of their own to gain momentum and close the gap to 19-13. Mount Douglas ran off and hid in the second half.
鈥淗ats off to Mount Boucherie for battling hard throughout the contest,鈥� Rams head coach Mark Townsend said.
鈥淲e know Boucherie was dealing with some injuries coming into the game, but played a solid game and never, ever gave up.
鈥淲e were very pleased with our players regaining their focus and finishing the game strong after Boucherie started to come back early in the third quarter.鈥�
The Rams finished with 250 rushing yards on the day, led by Zairech Kremler with 121 yards and two scores, while Ben Pierik finished with 95 yards and two TDs. Gideone Kremler completed 18 of 29 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
Hayden Naylor collected eight catches for 70 yards and one TD, followed by Dante Carbone with three receptions for 27 yards and one major score.
Zairech Kremler added three catches for 26 yards.
Defensively the Rams were solid as a unit, and tackle Ivan Xu opened the scoring for the Rams when he intercepted a pass and rumbled 30 yards to the end zone.
The Rams have now won four straight games and are a different team with quarterback Gideon Kremler back from injury.
The Belmont Bulldogs built up a 16-7 lead, but couldn鈥檛 hang on in losing 38-16 to the Terry Fox Ravens in Coquitlam in their playoff matchup on Friday night.
Terry Fox advances to quarter-finals against the Seaquam Seahawks next week while the Bulldogs have been eliminated.
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